• Pregnant women are protected from employment discrimination.womans work image by Andrey Kiselev from Fotolia.com
  
  The federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act prohibits employment discrimination against pregnant women, whose medical condition must be treated as a temporary disability. Thus, maternity leave is allowed from the last few weeks of pregnancy through a recovery period of four to six weeks after delivery. Additional time may be granted for medical complications. Workers are paid for the time off only if their state or employer offers paid disability benefits.
  
  

State Laws

• Only a few states offer paid maternity leave benefits.pregnant woman image by Roman Barelko from Fotolia.com
  
  California, New Jersey, New York, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico have laws providing workers with paid disability benefits during maternity leave. These states also offer paid family leave for parents who want to stay home to bond with a newborn or newly adopted child, granting them additional weeks off from work. The length of time depends on the state. The benefits are paid through state disability insurance funds.
  
  

Federal Laws

• As with any employee out of work for medical reasons, those on paid maternity leave can expect medical insurance and other benefits to continue. Federal law protects pregnant women from being fired because they need time off. The law also protects their seniority, vacation, sick time or scheduled pay raises.
  
  

Salary Compensation

• The amount of disability pay varies by state.check in macro image by Alexey Klementiev from Fotolia.com
  
  Paid maternity leave is covered by state disability insurance and the percentage of pay varies according to state. For example, California pays 55 percent of wages while New Jersey pays two-thirds of full pay. New York state pays a maximum of $170 a week for pregnancy leave, regardless of the worker's salary.